***September is my birthday month. In honor of that each day up until my birthday I will be sharing a picture of when I was younger. Along with that photo, I will attach something I would write to my younger self.  If you are just joining in  Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9

     High School ends and you move on to college. You got accepted to Ricks College which will become Brigham Young University- Idaho while you are there. You have no idea what to expect, but you are always up for an adventure.

You fly out with mom, and make the four hour drive from Salt Lake City to Rexburg, Idaho. Four. Hours. Nothing but mountains, sagebrush, and wide.open.spaces. The mountains intimidate you a bit, and you feel sort of vulnerable exposed out in the open.

You get to your dorm where mom drops you off and runs to the store like all the other good college moms do to get you some extra supplies. A knock on the door, and it's the new student orientation people. There is a bunch of activities geared towards the incoming freshman. You get whisked away and you don’t come back until late that night.

We got held in orientation purgatory. That is what it felt like. While it was fun, you really wanted to take a nap. After all you were still on Eastern Time Zone. In the meantime mom had to get back to the airport so you didn’t get to say goodbye.

You cried in your pillow that night, and cursed that dang orientation purgatory. You called your mom and told her sorry you didn’t get to say goodbye. She understood, and said she was glad you had a good time.

You hitch a ride to the mall with one of your roommates who knew someone with a car. On the drive you see how “desolate” it really looks. A tumbleweed passes by and you start to cry. “What did I do? Where am I? I want to go home!” Was your internal dialogue. You were used to the greenness of the east coast. On the radio “Ants Marching” by Dave Matthews Band comes on, and that kind of cheers you up.

Your roommates are your best friends. We are kind of an odd mix thrown together. The Upstate New York girl, The Virginia girls, The hippie girl from Oregon, and The Cattle Rancher’s Daughter from Arizona. We fought, we laughed, we cried. We’ll attend each other’s weddings. We will watch as we each become mothers. We will call each other and cry when one of our parent’s dies. We will be there for each other when our marriage’s look like they are in trouble. I never got to have a sister. This was my very own Little Women. College was my opportunity to have the sisterhood I always wanted. To this day we are still close. Even though we don’t see each other as often as we would like. When we do get together. We turn into giddy 18 year olds. We laugh and hee haw so loud and ferociously people look at us. We don’t care. We know we are funny, and we love each other dearly.

One of our favorite memories is when one of The Virginia girls was out on a date. It wasn’t going so well and she wanted out. She called the house phone and asked that we come pick her up. Not only did we pick her up, but we carried cast iron skillets, and wooden spoons with us. Windows down, tires screeching we screamed “Kill the beast!” as we went to go rescue our friend.

Donna, these will be some of the best times of your life. I wish you had not wished your time to pass so quickly while you were here. We just couldn’t wait to graduate and get on with life when we should have stopped and cherished the time that we had. So know that whatever stage in life you are in is where you are supposed to be. Don’t wish for that time to pass. Enjoy the moment you are in. You won’t get it back.